


Collapsed

by Ironic_Swag7782



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (mild), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Guilt, Huddling For Warmth, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, Lance (Voltron) Whump, M/M, Snowed In, Whump, fite me ok, lances mom is an angel, no one else really appears, sorry - Freeform, yes im writing that again fite me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 19:58:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11881728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ironic_Swag7782/pseuds/Ironic_Swag7782
Summary: On the way to Lance's family's home, they sit still on the side of the road just long enough for their car to be snowed in. It's a long way to rescue, and Keith doesn't know if they're going to make it....I'm sorry, Lance.





	Collapsed

“You said a two-hour trip, maximum.” Lance shudders, wrapping his jacket tighter round his arms. “Not four hours! We’re still not there, and it’s been almost four hours, Keith! In a blizzard, nonetheless!” 

“I apologise, alright? I didn’t account for traffic!” 

“You should let me drive. We’d get there on time then.” 

“Shut up! We’ll get there on time.” 

“It’s already nine. Mom’s gonna have already made food.” Just thinking about it, Lance’s stomach growled; he hadn’t had anything since lunchtime, because he knew his mom would be making enough food to feed a small country. 

“Please don’t talk about food.” Keith implores. “I am starving. And who’s fault is that…?” 

“I thought we’d be getting there on time, Keith.” 

Keith growls in anger, almost dropping his head with frustration. God, why couldn’t Lance just admit he was being uptight about this? Sure, Keith should have thought about traffic, but it was a simple mistake! People made those, right?

For what feels like the fiftieth time this trip, Lance sneezes into his hand, each sneeze sounding more and more scratchy as time went on. Keith would die before he admitted it, but he was worried about him – despite the heating being on full blast, Lance had his jacket on and his legs buried under a blanket he’d insisted on bringing. 

“You need to be careful on the road.” Lance adds, after rubbing his nose raw. “It’s snowy and the road’s slippery. Can you even see?” 

“Why don’t you drive, Lance?” Keith knew this was a low blow, but he was running out of patience. “Oh wait, you never bothered to learn.” 

A short pause of silence passes, in which Keith is sure Lance is going to snap and start yelling at him, or maybe cry, but he does none of those things. Instead, he asks, in a small voice;

“Pull over.” 

“What?” Keith snapped. “Why?” 

“Pull over!” Lance basically yells, and Keith suddenly notices the sheen of sweat and ghostly pale pallor.

“Okay, okay!” Keith swung the car over almost violently, and Lance throws himself out the car. 

Keith heard retching next, and scrabbled at the seatbelt, desperate to do something, anything to comfort Lance. 

“Lance?”

“I want to go home.” Lance whispers, after a beat. “This car is fucking cold, and I miss my mom. I want her comfort food.” 

“Oh, Lance.” He pulls him back into his seat, and tucks an arm round his shoulders. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. This…This is my fault, I shouldn’t have yelled and I should have left at a better time. I can’t fucking apologise enough.” 

“Did…did you just call me sweetheart?” Lance whispers, a joking tone squashing down Keith’s concern a little. “Soppy, cariño.” 

“Shut up.” Keith smiles fondly. 

There’s peace for all of twenty seconds, in which Keith attempts to start the car again – one of Shiro’s many hand-me-downs, it’s about twenty years old and a piece of crap – and suddenly, in a wave of terrifying darkness and a huge thud, the whole car drops several degrees and turns completely black. 

“What the fuck?” Lance mutters, feeling around for a light. He doesn’t succeed, the whole car still plunged in a terrifying darkness. 

“Is it the blizzard?” Keith asks, fiddling with the car engine again. It seems to decide that now, of all times, is a good opportunity to cut out on him. 

“No, I don’t think it would just suddenly -” Lance stops, swearing loudly. “We’ve been snowed in. We must be right in the path of one of those snow clearers, you know the ones that clear roads…”

“Snowploughs?” 

“Yeah.” Keith drops his head on the wheel, almost screaming. “Fuck, we’ve been snowed in.” 

As if to prove – and make him worry – his point, Lance sneezes violently, letting out a shudder. 

“-And you’ve got a fever. We are so fucked.” 

Lance doesn’t respond, simply pulling his jacket tighter around him. He does mutter out; 

“Can you call the triple A?” 

“Good idea.” 

 

“They said two hours minimum. I begged them to come faster but…Well, you know, the blizzard. It’s busy.” Keith sighs, attempting to turn the heating on again. “And now the heating’s busted. Goddamn it, Lance, I can’t apologise enough, really.” 

“Stop- Stop a-apologising.” Lance chatters. “N-Not your f-fault.”

He was getting cold. Far too cold; it hits Keith how likely the possibility of hypothermia was becoming. And with the heating out, and only one blanket, Keith realised what he may have to force himself to do. 

“Lance, do you think we could both fit on one seat?” He asks, and Lance looks a little bewildered, but answers with a short nod. “Then budge over a little. We need to conserve body heat.” 

“A-Are you serious?” 

“Yep. You’re gonna get too cold.” Keith hates having to explain himself, but it pays off. Lance shifts himself across the seat a little, as much as he could, which gives Keith enough room to squeeze himself in. “Okay, now we can…y’know…” 

“C-cuddle?”

Keith feels his whole face flare up, and hears Lance chuckle, but it is so worth it. Because, with his arm round Keith’s waist and head nestled in his shoulder, is Lance fucking McClain, and he feels like all of his dreams have come true. And by god, did he look cute – if a little scarily pale and worryingly devoid of colour – when he slept.  
Even now, a good five months into their relationship, Keith still couldn’t believe what he was experiencing. The years of pining finally paid off. 

It was getting late; Lance’s mom was probably worrying where they were. Given he had left his phone back home, he thanked the lords that Lance’s phone was generally kept unlocked – he kept nagging him to unlock it, what if strangers got hold of his phone and stole his identity? – but for once, it pays off. 

“Hello?” Lance’s mom answers on the other side. “Lance?! ¡Estupido! ¡¿Donde yo?!” 

“No, no, Mrs McClain, it’s Keith.” 

“Ah, sorry, Keith.” She apologises, sounding bashful. “Are you okay? Sorry for my language.” 

“Uh, maybe a little stuck – we pulled over, and a snowplough just came out of nowhere. We’ve been snowed in.” 

“Dios, are you alright?!” 

“Yeah – I am, but Lance…He’s got a fever already, and it’s so cold in here and I don’t know what to do…” Keith tries his absolute best, but a little sob breaks out, because this just feels so helpless. 

“Alright, alright, calm down, dear.” Lance’s mom’s voice is always so soothing. How did she do it? “Is Lance wrapped up all nice? Has he got a source of heat? What about drinks?”

“Uh – yeah. We’re – uh – cuddling. And I don’t have any food in the car.”

The woman on the other end snorts a little with barely contained laughter. He cringes with mild embarrassment, but if it’s what it takes to keep Lance alive, then he would do anything. Even embarrass himself in front of his boyfriend’s mother. 

“Well, it’s gonna warm him up. No need to be embarrassed, cariño.” 

Keith snorts himself, then. Because of course Lance is such a momma’s boy he even takes the endearments she uses; it’s shouldn’t be quite as funny as it is, but with the cold taking away most of his coherent thought, and Lance so there, he’s not making much sense even to himself right now. 

“What’s funny?” 

“You and Lance use the same nickname. It’s sweet.” 

“Ah, he must have picked up on it.” Her voice drops a tone, as if hoping Lance – assuming he’s still even awake – wouldn’t hear them. “How much longer until you get out?”  
“The AAA’s on their way in like, an hour and a half? Maybe a little longer.” Keith responds. “And you’re about two hours away. So…We’re gonna have a long wait. And you shouldn’t come down.” 

“Ah.” The woman responds. “Well, tell Lance his dinner’s waiting for him. It’s his favourite. You should probably save battery charge – maybe call again in about an hour.”

“Good idea. Thank you, Mrs McClain. I…I don’t know what I would have done without you.” 

“Please. Just Rosa’s fine. And It’s no problem. I care about you, both of you – Keith, you’re a part of the family now.” 

Keith hurries out a thank you, and a goodbye, and has to hang up – he feels his eyes getting dangerously watery, and no way is he crying in front of Lance’s mom. 

He lets himself cry himself out for a little bit, then. He keeps it at a low volume – he is not waking up Lance, not on his life. 

“Keith?” 

Well, there goes that. 

“Sorry, Lance, I didn’t mean to wake you -” Lance ignores his defence, and throws – or, throws with what is left of his strength – his hands round his neck. 

“What’s the matter?” Lance asks him, muffled, his head nuzzled into his shoulder. 

“I – I just spoke to your mom, she was so…so incredibly kind, how does she do it?” 

“Six k-kids. P-patience of a g-god.” 

“I wish…I wish I could have had that…” 

“Well, y-you’ve got i-it n-now!” 

 

Lance, in the half an hour that had gone by, somehow had only gotten colder. Keith had tried everything; he’d desperately pushed at the door, trying to get it open, in the vain hope that he could maybe push through the snow. He didn’t dare try and open the window, in the fear that he’d make things worse, like never be able to shut it again, or letting snow in and either getting Lance wet – which would not help his situation at all – or making the car colder. 

He’d tried fixing the heating, desperate to get some warmth in the car, any at all. Lance’s body heat was pretty much non-existent by this point, only being heated by what little heat Keith could provide. And with the car apparently getting colder, even that was dwindling. Now Keith had the possibility of himself getting hypothermia; it hadn’t seemed so bad, back when he was worrying so much about Lance, but now…

He’d checked Lance’s phone a couple times since he’d called Rosa, and been horrified to discover it at 23 percent – in a bid to maybe call Rosa later, he switches it off.  
But now he had nothing to occupy his mind with, nothing to stop the incessant worrying. The constant ‘what ifs’ weren’t leaving him alone. With Lance passed out, especially…

He just didn’t know what to do, and it terrified him. What if Lance died, in this godforsaken car, what if they both did? What if Lance died before they were rescued, and Keith was forced to stay in the car with his boyfriend’s body – 

Stop. He had to stop this. Lance was going to be fine. A little cold, very shaken up, but they’d both be fine. He had to cement that idea, because if he didn’t, if he gave up…  
Well. He just didn’t want to think about that.

And when Lance started twitching in his sleep, Keith felt his heart break in two all over again. Keith takes Lance’s clammy hand in his, and, desperation as his lifeline, he clings to Lance like he was the only thing that mattered in the world. Which, he supposed, at this point, he was. 

Because if Lance died here it would be all his fault. His fault for not choosing a better time to leave, for not driving safe enough, for not pulling over quick enough, for not noticing the snowplough – Keith reasons, who doesn’t notice a huge-ass snowplough coming up behind them? A dumbass, him, that’s who – for not taking better care of Lance. 

It’s all on him. And now Lance was whimpering from the pain of all this, while Keith desperately tried to calm him down, to feel like he was doing something.  
Was this some kind of universal revenge? God, what did he do to deserve this?

 

Another agonising hour passes. Lance, thank fuck, hadn’t got any colder, but hadn’t exactly got warmer either. His forehead still shone with cold sweat, and Keith was still concerned Lance was still cold. He even thought, in worst case scenario, he was getting colder, but Keith just couldn’t feel it – he wasn’t exactly warm himself. 

Keith still keeps a vigilant eye over the time – 11.43 pm. It would almost be the next day – most of Lance’s house would probably be asleep by now. Except, maybe Rosa. Keith had only met her a precious few times – the phone call being one of them – and he knew she was going to be the kind of mother to not be able to sleep unless she knew her son was safe. 

Oh god, the guilt was back. Well, it never left, but only intensified with the thought of Rosa pacing the house, worried out of her mind about her son. 

He wants so bad to call her. He’s only met her a few times, but he has a desperate need to hear her soothing voice, to make him feel like everything will be fine. Even if it won’t. Even if Lance is likely to die here. Even if there’s a good chance he will too. 

Lance stirs slightly, though he isn’t sure why. He hadn’t made any noise, deliberately. 

“Keith?” Lance’s voice comes out slurred, achingly scarily so. “Whass’goin’ on?” 

“Sorry, sorry, sorry, baby.” Keith near-sobs. “You’re in so much p-pain and t-there’s n-nothing I can do.”

“Hey, hey, Keith, don’t cry!” Lance attempts, taking a freezing hand in his equally frozen one. “It’s okay, we’ll be fine! The triple A probably isn’t far, I’m sure of it, and we’ll get out of here. I promise, cariño.”

“Aren’t I-I s-supposed to b-be comforting-g y-you?” 

Lance shushes him, blinking so agonisingly slow, head slumping with even the effort of keeping it up. 

Eventually Lance settles for lying with his head on Keith’s chest. It seriously worries Keith how quick he is to settle back into sleep – like it’s less waking up, and more being conscious for a short time period. 

God, they’d better be saved soon. He doesn’t know how much longer he – how much longer they both can – hold on. 

 

Keith is almost passed out by the time he hears a commotion outside. It sounds like a woman talking animatedly – almost yelling, it sounded – to someone else. Forcing himself awake, he manages to focus on the voice for long enough to realise – it’s Rosa! 

He’s too sapped of energy to properly get words out, but he at least forces himself to sit up right. Lance, scarily, barely shifts in his arms as he changes his position.  
When the snow finally starts to clear enough to give a glimpse of bright white light – and flashing red ones, that he will later realise are ambulance lights - form the outside, he almost bursts into relieved tears. He’d never thought he’d be glad to see the headlights of a few cars, or the faces of strangers – and one person he would be grateful for existing for the rest of his life. 

Rosa shouts something intelligible when she spots him, and he gestures to his lap, thinking maybe it’s her asking where her son is. 

“Get them out!” He hears her yell to someone off to the side, who cranks the door open.

He’s hit with a blast of air that scarily, doesn’t feel any different to the air in the car. Rosa grabs him and Lance in the warmest hug he’s ever had, bringing tears to his eyes. 

“Oh, oh, boys, I’m so glad you’re safe.” 

One of the paramedics gently removes her arm from her almost crushing grip, and almost drowning in the relief that they will both be okay, Keith finally lets himself be lulled into unconsciousness. 

 

Someone’s talking, a voice he recognises. A voice he thinks is calm enough to probably make him fall back asleep again. No, he can’t, he has to make sure Lance isn’t getting any colder, he has to make sure he doesn’t have any more nightmares. 

“Lance?” He calls out, then realises how much room he has – that doesn’t seem right? Wasn’t he cramped in the car? 

“Lance is asleep, cariño.” That comforting voice says again. “He’ll be out for a while, the doctor said. He had hypothermia pretty bad.” 

“Doctor?” Okay, now he’s confused. Why was there a doctor in the car? 

“Hospital? We got you out, you’re safe.” 

Keith cracks an eye open, having to squeeze it closed again when the insane amount of bright white assaults his eyes. After a quick second, he forces them open again, focusing on the woman smiling widely in front of him. Ah, Rosa, that’s who. 

“Why are you here? You didn’t make the trip, did you?” 

“Of course I did!” She exclaims, making him feel bad for accusing her. “Like I said. Family.” 

Tears well up again, sending Rosa into a mild panic. 

“Oh, no, Keith, I meant it in a good way!” Rosa soothes him, serving only to make him cry more. “Please don’t cry, if you don’t want to be family that’s fine, I understand it might be weird given – well, Lance -” 

“No, no, it’s good. You’re…you’re the first family I’ve had, it just…means a huge amount.” 

 

Lance came to next; to Keith hovering over his best like a…a mother hen. 

“You wanna find someone else to hover over?” 

Keith, shockingly enough, almost enough to give Lance a heart attack, throws himself at Lance in a rib-crushing hug. 

“Babe, I admire that you’re working out, getting stronger and all, but wanna -” Lance wheezes. “Gimme some room to breathe?” 

“I was so worried, dumbass.” Keith scolds him, finally letting him go. “You don’t get to almost die without giving me a heads up before.” 

“…Sorry? I didn’t intend to die, at least.” Lance lets his hand be taken in Keith’s. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.” 

“No, no, I’m sorry. It was my fault we got stranded in the first place…” 

“Okay, false. It’s no one’s fault – ‘cept maybe the dumb snowplough guy – and no blaming yourself.” 

“I guess that’s something I can agree with…”

**Author's Note:**

> so MAYBE this was inspired by that one scene in How I Met Your Mother. Sue me. 
> 
> I actually quite like this ????? its been a while since ive written established klance, and I enjoyed it. also the fact that I wrote 3k in one sitting has got to be some kind of record for me 
> 
> hmu on tumblr if u want - @lovthelangst and @yesgay-briel (main) I'd love to chat/scream about voltron


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